Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Shining STARS
by Dark Flygon Naxi
Summary: A redux of the first Mystery Dungeon game with a different chain of events linking the story together. Naxi finds himself as a pikachu with no memories of how, he teams up with the mudkip Victoria to find out why. My first fic. Rated T just to be safe.R
1. First Moments

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Shining S.T.A.R.S.

My own version of the first Mystery Dungeon game, with an alternate perspective on the progression of the events and when/how they occur.

_**Don't forget the disclaimer Naxi.**_

I know Hunter, I was just getting to that. (Clears throat) Ahem:

The pokemon name belongs to gamefreak and the pokemon company, not me or any of my personalities, if it did, there would be alot more Mystery Dungeon Games.

One quick note:

"This is speech"

"_This is thought"_

Enjoy…

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**Chapter One: First Moments**

There was only blackness before him…

"_Where am I?"_ He thought, _"Is this some kind of dream?"_

"_Huh? There's some kind of breeze…"_

"..."

"_What? Was that a voice?"_

"......"

"_I think someone's calling me…"_

".......Excuse me,"

"_I can hear it now…"_

"Get up… Hey, are you alright? Say something!"

"_Ugh… I would if I could…"_

"....come on wake up."

His blue eyes snapped open, and he was briefly blinded by the midday sunlight. A voice called out from his left, "Your finally awake, thank goodness!"

Things coming back into focus, he looked toward the source of the voice, and was surprised to find himself looking at a mudkip.

"You were passed out there, I was kinda worried and uh… I've been trying to wake you up for some time now." The mudkip backed up, giving him some room.

"How can I understand you? Your a pokemon." He questioned, not quite fully awake.

She pointed at him and replied, "What do you mean by that? Your a pokemon and I understand you."

"What?" He muttered in shock. He got up and ran over to a near by stream. Upon looking into the stream, he was shocked to see a blue-eyed pikachu looking back. _"It-it-it's me, I have blue eyes, and no pikachu ever has those, at least not normally…"_ He somehow rationalized. Quickly looking himself over, he stared at his hands like he'd never seen them before, and even grabbed his tail to actually feel it as a part of himself.

"This-this can't really be happening, I-I'm supposed to be a human!" he came to grasp the gravity of the situation.

At a loss for words, he finally got a look around at his surroundings. They where in some kind of forest, with a few trees scattered around, hours-old dew glinting off the leaves. The stream he was standing by was crystal clear, he could see the small pebbles sitting on the shallow bottom. The light-green grass that covered the clearing was long and felt soft under foot. As well, the sun was also low in the sky, casting everything in a soft orange glow.

"A Human?", the mudkip joined him by the stream, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah…", Naxi resumed staring at his reflection in the stream.

"Well… What was your name?" she came between him and the stream.

"_My name?"_, He struggled, _"oh that's right my name is..."_

"Naxi ," He said aloud, "My name is Naxi."

"Oh, your name's Naxi?" A grin began to spread across her face.

"Yeah, is something wrong with that?" he questioned.

"Well.... It's a funny name!" she burst out laughing.

"Oy,ve." he muttered. _"Wait, Oy ve? What is that? Why do I feel like I'm missing something?" _Then he realized, he could barely remember anything about his life as a human!

"_What happened to me?"_ he concentrated, his face scrunching up with the effort _"Gah! I really can't remember anything accept my name! Ahh! This is so frustrating!" _His face twitched slightly as he angrily contemplated his loss.

"Well." she looked him right in the eyes, "If you don't have any plans, you can come with me."

Seeing as he had no other Ideas, he decided that he'd take her up on her offer.

"I'm not to sure, but it's not like I've got anything better to do.", Naxi moved away a little.

"Are you sure your alright?", She backed up a little, looking him over.

"I'm fine really, but…"

"But what?"

Naxi blushed a little, "Your offering to help me, and I can't even properly thank you."

"What do you mean?"

"You… Haven't even told me your name yet."

"Oh,", She looked a little embarrassed, "I'm sorry, My name's Victoria."

"Victoria, thank you for helping me out, I have a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get."

"Really? Do you have any Idea how this happened to you?"

"Not a clue, even less since I seem to have Amnesia."

"You… lost your memory?" Victoria gasped, seeming to become even more sorry for him.

"Now, what were you saying about your place?", he asked, uncomfortable with the matter.

She seemed to take the hint, "Oh, yah you can come with me, I've got a place that's just perfect."

She led him out of the clearing.

They arrived at a little hut structure shortly afterwards.

"Nice place," he commented, "You live here?"

"Actually no," Victoria walked in front of the structure, "My family owns the property, but we haven't done anything with it."

"So you think your parents will be fine with me living here?" he asked, looking the place over.

Victoria looked a little sad as she said, "Actually, I'm on my own, and it's part of my inheritance."

As realization hit him, pity seeped into his words, "So you lost your parents didn't you?"

Victoria gave a sad look as she replied, "Yes, they were attacked by a group of bandits, ruthless robbers, and w-we never found them, but bandits never take prisoners, they only make the evidence disappear…"

"Harsh," He found himself worrying more about her problems, and less about his own.

"Still," She looked up, seemingly shaking off painful memories, "technically It's my property to do with as I chose, and well you are my friend, so I feel like I should help you out."

"It's quite a generous offer," He mused, bringing his paw/hand to his chin.

She seemed confused, "Is it too much?"

"No, It's perfect!", he happily burst out, "Thank you!" he gave her a big hug.

She seemed taken aback by his sudden happy outburst because up till that point she'd only seen him acting serious.

"A-Are you feeling ok, Naxi?" She stammered.

Still lost in bliss he Replied, "I'm Fine! Just really Happy! Things are finally starting to look up."

"Ok, It's just a little weird when someone changes like that all of a sudden." She replied.

Taking a deep breath he calmed down, "Sorry, I don't know where that rush came from."

"It was kind of strange…" Victoria Muttered.

"Well, I guess I must have had some quirks as a human…" Naxi trailed off, once again reminded of his own predicament.

Seeing the depressed look on Naxi's face, Victoria decided to try and encourage him, "Hey, don't worry Naxi, I'm sure you'll get your memory back eventually…"

"Yeah," Naxi agreed in depressed sarcasm, "Maybe in a million years…"

Seeing her encouragement having no effect, she tried another tactic, " Naxi, I want you to know, I consider you my friend. That means I'll do whatever I can to help you out…"

Shaking off his depression, Naxi looked up, hope shining deeply in his blue eyes "Thanks V, I'm sorry I let it get to me. You're my friend too, and I should accept your support. Not wallow in self-pity…"

After their moment in front of the hut, Victoria broke the silence, "Well, it's getting late, guess you should get adequated with your new home. Also, I'll come by tomorrow morning."

"Ok, see you tomorrow.", Naxi waved goodbye as Victoria walked away.

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First chapter. Please Review, constructive criticizim is greatly appreciated as this is my first fic.

Flamers will be hunted down and eviserated, so if it's not a reveiw or constructive critisim keep it to yourself.


	2. Pokemon Square

Here's chapter 2, and I'd like to thank Penguingod777 for leaving the first review, and letting me know that I have readers…

Before the others remind me: We don't own Pokemon, it belongs to the company of the same name.

Read and Review please…

Chapter Two: Pokemon Square.

Naxi was sleeping in his new home, when he stirred suddenly and woke up.

"Ugh," Naxi groaned as he got up. He quickly gave himself a once-over and sighed, "Guess I'm still a pikachu, Man I really wish I knew how this happened." Sighing once again, Naxi had breakfast, a couple of fresh apples off of the tree that grew near the hut. "Hmm, I wonder what Victoria's up to today," he wondered between mouthfuls, "Oh! Right, she said she'd meet me here. Guess I should go outside." Finishing up, he crossed over to the front door. Moving outside, he found Victoria already coming up to the house.

"Hey, Naxi", Victoria called, getting up to where he was standing.

"Hi Victoria", Naxi replied, closing the door behind him.

"You sleep well?" Victoria asked.

"Yeah, It's actually quite cozy in there," Naxi answered, gesturing back toward the hut, "What should we do today?"

"How about I give you a tour of the town?", Victoria suggested, pointing off into the distance.

"Sounds good to me," he walked past Victoria, looking off in the direction she'd pointed in.

She led Naxi down the path to pokemon square, stopping when they reached a small bridge. "Well, we're here."

Pokemon Square lived up to it's name, in the center of the town was a large, beautifully decorated, open area in the shape of a perfect square. The square was defined by the Cobblestones that created its surface, with dirt paths leading up to it. Naxi watched as multiple pokemon scurried about their business, something about the scene seemed familiar to him, but he was jarred from his thoughts as Victoria pointed out a stand in the town.

"That's the Kecleon Market, run by Edgar and his brother Sabin." The structure she indicated bared resemblance to a fruit stand, the two Kecleons running the place seemed immersed in business.

"You know, it's kinda funny really, their not much older than me and yet their business professionals."

Naxi noticed that there seemed to be a sad tone to her voice, but didn't get a chance to think about it as Victoria pulled him into the town. Along with the Market, there were all different kinds of stands set up around the central square, each of them manned by different pokemon.

As Victoria pointed out each stand and their purpose, Naxi noticed the small stone buildings behind the stands, apparently where the stands owners lived.

Meanwhile, Victoria was still going on about each of the establishments in the town,

"… And that's Kangashkan storage, the owner's Madeline and her kid is Terra.", she was indicating a rather large building that was ironicly shaped like a Kangashkan. "The town's pretty well off I'd say…", she finally trailed off.

"Seems like a nice enough place to me…", Naxi stood watching the various pokemon scurry about.

Victoria once again moved in front of him, "Well, since your probably going to be here a while, we could set up a bank and storage account for you."

"Hm…" he mused for a moment, "While that seems like a good idea, it's not like I actually have any money or anything to put in storage."

"Right…" Victoria looked a little sheepish, "Forgot about that. I guess you can just use mine for now."

"Why hello there," A lombre stopped in front of the pair, and speaking to Naxi, "You look like your new here, I'm Carlos, welcome to Pokemon Square."

"Thanks," Naxi returned, "I'm Naxi, pleased to meet you."

Carlos nodded and, noticing Victoria, continued "Ah, Victoria, how are you this fine day?"

"I'm great, just showing Naxi here around the Square.", Victoria responded, indicating Naxi with a small jerk of her head fin.

"Ah," he turned back to Naxi, "Well, I hope you have a pleasant time here at the Square.

Carlos went off, and Naxi was feeling a lot better, he really had ended up in a decent place, and at least the pokemon where friendly… He shuddered to think of what would've happened to him if he'd ended up in a place with wild pokemon, he didn't even know how to use special attacks. A concern he wasted no time in voicing…

"Um… Victoria," He started, suddenly feeling shy.

"Hm, what is it Naxi?", she turned back to him.

"I just realized that I don't know how to fight like a pokemon; you know, using special moves…"

"Oh, yeah that's probably something you might have to know…" She thought about it a moment, "Come on, we'll go practice in the woods."

And with that the pair left Pokemon Square.


	3. The First Struggle

This chapter gave me some serious problems, I ended up having to re-write the entire thing after I used a different computer than I usually do. The format it saved on couldn't be read by my normal computer and it was destroyed when I attempted to have it load…

Sorry for the delay, Here's chapter three:

Chapter Three: The First Struggle

The pair returned to the house, and grabbed a few apples and berries for a picnic lunch in the woods. "This should be enough, let me just get some targets and we'll go practice."

Grabbing a couple targets, which were basically bull's-eyes on sticks, Victoria proceeded to lead Naxi down the path to the woods. "To use 'moves', aka special attacks, you need to focus. In your case this focus will allow you to build up an electric charge." Victoria explained as they trudged down the dusty path.

"Alright…", a look of confusion spreading across his face, "I get that, but how do I fire off a lightning bolt?"

Letting off a sigh, Victoria continued her explanation, "You just need to focus the electricity you've built up onto the enemy, and the bolt will strike."

"That easy huh?", Naxi looked a little relieved, "I figured it would've been harder than that…"

Victoria chuckled slightly, "Electric types have it easy, they only have to focus."

Naxi followed up with a smirk and, "Guess I'm lucky I ended up as a pokemon that's got it easy when it comes to combat, If it was more complex I don't think I'd be able to do it." A look of mock-stupidity causing Victoria to burst out laughing.

"Oh I don't think your THAT stupid…" She snorted.

"Hey! Who you callin' stupid? Stupid!" The mock-stupidity becoming even more convincing.

Victoria kept laughing as Naxi dropped the look and joined in, the cackling pair finally stepping off the dirt and onto grass.

After a long period of mindless laughter, Naxi finally managed to stop and take a look around.

"Hey isn't this…"

"The place where I found you." Victoria finished for him. "I actually come here quite often…"

"Guess I'm lucky you do!", Naxi perked up, "If you didn't…"

"You would've been out here for a while…." Victoria finished again.

"That, or I would've woken up alone and would've eventually ended up in pokemon square making a complete fool of myself trying to get someone to believe me." Naxi smirked a little at the mental image of a crazy pikachu running around claiming to be a human.

"Yeah, I'm not to sure how that would've gone over…" Victoria rolled her eyes as she tried to picture how the town would react.

"Ha, That would've been interesting…." Naxi seemed to drift off a little before he came back with, "Well if I'm gonna learn how to fight, we should start now."

Victoria shook off the pack and began to assemble the targets, "Right, just give it your best shot."

With the targets set up, Naxi began to focus, picturing electricity gathering around his body, and soon enough he could feel a slight tingling sensation.

"Your sparking!", Victoria called from of to the side, "Go for it!"

"Right!", Naxi focused on the target, and with a massive 'ZAP!' and a brilliant flash of light, the Target was disintegrated by an enormous lightning bolt.

Staring at the scene, Victoria stood there with her mouth hanging open, "Whoa… Naxi that was HUGE!"

"Uh, Guess I concentrated a little to hard…" Naxi looked on in disbelief at the power behind his simple thundershock attack. "Maybe we should try again so I can try and make a smaller one that won't vaporize the target…."

"O.K.", Victoria looked a little stunned, "But what are you going to fire at?"

"Huh?", Naxi took a second look at the field, "Where did all the targets go?"

The field was empty, the targets nowhere to be seen.

"Naxi," Victoria started, "Your attack destroyed all of them…"

"Wha!?", His expression became even more surprised at the news.

"I think you pulled off a Thunderbolt attack, not a Thundershock…." She seemed to recover from the shock.

"More like a Thunderstorm…", Naxi quipped.

"I'm glad your not a badguy! That kind of power isn't something you often see…" Victoria started to walk over to Naxi, still amazed by how strong he was.

The moment changed as the ground began to shake, Violently.

"Wha-What's going on!?!?", Naxi panicked.

"E-Earthquake!" Victoria stuttered as she tried to hold her footing.

Naxi wasn't as steady on two legs as Victoria was on four, and fell flat on his face.

Soon enough, the quake stopped, and with a pained grunt he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Ow. At least it was grass and not a rock…" He whined.

Victoria looked around briefly before helping Naxi stand up.

As she was about to comment on his fall, a shriek from near-by immediately drew their attention.

"What was that!?" Naxi looked around, trying to figure out where it had come from.

"It sounded close," Victoria looked to their immediate left, "We should check it out, Come on!"

They came across a massive fissure in the ground, infront of which was a butterfree. She was pacing (flying) back and forth, muttering: "Oh, What am I going to do? What am I going to do?"

Victoria quickly ran up to the butterfre, "What's the matter? What happened?"

"Oh it's terrible!", The butterfree, obviously a mother, began, "My baby fell into this fissure when the earthquake opened it! He's just a caterpi, so he's to young to crawl out by himself, but when I tried to go in I was attacked!" She was talking so fast that Naxi almost missed about half of what she said.

"You were attacked?", Victoria replied in shock, "That's terrible!"

Putting a hand on her shoulder, Naxi knew what had to be done, "We should help," Looking up to the butterfree, he asked, "What's his name?"

"His name's Kidd… It was my husband's idea, and it just kind of stuck…", She explained, floating a little closer to the ground.

"Kidd, huh?", With a quick glance to Victoria, "We'll find him."

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" The butterfree seemed ready to burst from a mix of both worry and relief.

Victoria examined the opening of the fissure, "Looks like there's a way down over here, let's go!"

With that, the pair climbed in.

They seemed to be climbing down on what appeared to be a perfectly constructed stone ladder, which Naxi found strange, but was more concerned with finding Kidd than trying to figure out where the ladder came from. About halfway down the ladder Naxi had a strange feeling, almost like they where passing through some kind of barrier. "Hey V," He called, "We're almost at the bottom, are you ready?"

"Yeah, what's the worst that could happen?", She replied

The duo continued their decent into the pit, finally reaching the bottom.

"V, I don't think this is your average hole…"

The wall opposite them was marked with an opening that gave the impression of a cave entrance.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Victoria started, "but it looks like kidd is somewhere in there."

"Right, then let's go save this guy." Naxi confidently strode into the cave with Victoria close behind.

"What the!?", Naxi yelped. The supposed 'cave' had trees, eerily mirroring the ones above ground, in it and practically looked like an underground forest.

"Naxi," Victoria gasped, surveying the scene, "I don't think this in natural…"

"Maybe we should back up a sec and rethink this…", Naxi pondered, taking a few steps back.

"This is pretty cool though…", She sighed.

"Uh, V?", Naxi sounded worried.

"What is it?", She turned to face him.

"Where did the door go?"

"What!?!?" She could now clearly see that what had once been a clearly defined opening was now a solid wall!

"We're locked in!" Naxi panicked, starting to beat on the wall.

As she stood there in shock, something became clear to Victoria.

"We're in a Mystery Dungeon…"

Ceasing his assault on the wall, "A Mystery Dungeon? What's that?"

In a voice that Naxi felt would've been more appropriate around a campfire, Victoria explained.

"A part of this world that has become cursed, trapping unwary travelers within their changing halls, doomed to wander forever…"

"Was it necessary to be that creepy!?"

Her expression a mix of sheepishness and fear, "Sorry, that was from a legend I'd heard about Dungeons."

"Well is there anyway to get out?"

"Um…", She thought for a moment, then responded in the voice from earlier, "Only those who can reach the end of the dungeon's maze will be allowed to leave…"

Looking relieved and a little annoyed, Naxi shot back, "Will you stop using that voice! It creeps me out…"

"Alright, Alright…", She moved to the path before them, "Let's go find kidd."

Naxi joined her by the path, "O.K. , I guess we'll look for him while we look for the exit."

A little worried, but comforted by each other's presence, they proceeded into the maze of trees…

Tiny Woods B1F

"This could take a while…", Naxi sighed as they came to an intersection, "Three routes to chose from, which way should we go?"

Victoria did her best to glance down each path, "I can't tell where they go, I guess it's your call."

A moment of consideration, and Naxi led them down the path to their immediate right.

Cautiously marching down the hall, they eventually emerged into some kind of clearing, in a way it was a kind of room amidst the walls of trees.

"I think we're getting somewhere, V.", Noticing another opening in the wall, they slowly approached the new path.

"Wurp…"

"Huh? V, did you say something?"

"That wasn't me…"

"Then what….", Naxi turned and noticed that something was following them, "There's a wurmple following us…"

"Do you think its lost here to?", Victoria approached the little creature, "Hey there, are you lost?"

Suddenly the wurmple's eyes turned red and with a cry of "Wurrrrmmmmm!" it released a string-shot attack point blank at Victoria.

"V!", Naxi reacted almost instantly, leaping at the wurmple and landing a dropkick in its face. The string of silk went everywhere as it reeled from the attack.

Cheeks sparking, Naxi quickly followed up with, "ThunderShock!". The bolt lit up the room in a yellow light as it streaked through the air, nailing the wurmple and K. it instantly.

Victoria shook herself free of the silk as the wurmple seemed to fade out, disappearing completely, "That must've been one of the 'fake' pokemon that the dungeon generates to make the maze more difficult…"

"Well if the strength of the pokemon in the dungeon are any indication of the maze's difficultly, then this should be easy.", Naxi looked confident as they once again proceeded into the corridor of trees.

After a short walk through the trees, they emerged into another room.

"Well that's…. Interesting.", Naxi moved closer to what appeared to be a staircase going down.

"This must be one of the 'staircases of hope', they lead down to the next floor.", Victoria explained as she inspected the stone structure.

"Then I'm guessing when we reach the last floor, we'll find the exit.", Naxi started down the stairs, "Come on, let's move!"

Tiny Woods B2F

"Mudslap!", Victoria smacked the ground with a wet hand, turning the dirt to mud and sending a glob of it flying through the air. Naxi ducked as the blast of mud shot over his head and knocked a leaping sunkurd out of the air, causing it to fade as it hit the ground.

"Geeze! We just got down here and we've already got things jumpin' at us!", Naxi seemed really annoyed, the attack having caught him off-guard, "Thanks for the save there V, that was one quick reaction."

"I guess you can count on me then, heh…", She seemed a little embarrassed by the compliment, _"A compliment about my fighting skills? That's not something I hear often…" _

Moving out of the room, they came across, "Another intersection," Naxi sighed, "Man I hate all these cross-roads…" Looking left and right at the three-way, there were only two choices, "Let's try the left."

The corridor went on for quite a while, unfortunately ending in, "A dead end…", Naxi sighed as they turned back, returning to the intersection.

They neared the intersection, but when they reached it, "V we got company!" two pidgey were coming straight at them from the right path, while two wurmple came up the center path.

"There's some behind us to!", A sunkurd and a pidgey coming up the path they'd just been on.

"Where did they come from! We were just down there!", Naxi shouted in frustration as he built up a charge.

"The dungeon must've generated them after we turned around!" Victoria prepared to guard their back, while Naxi prepared to hold the front, the two moving into a back-to-back formation.

The pidgeys reached them first, "Good Night!", Naxi released a full-on blast of electricity at the pidgeys, completely decimating them. Whirling to his right, he prepared to engage the two wurmple.

"Mudslap!", Victoria's attack knocked out the sunkurd, but the pidgey was still coming.

"ThunderShock!", Two more blasts of electricity lit up the room as both wurmple went down.

Before she could get off another attack, the pidgey slammed into Victoria with a fierce Peck.

Victoria was knocked over, hitting Naxi in the process and sending him sprawling aswell.

The pidgey didn't waste it's opportunity, and swooped in for a strike on Naxi.

With no time to build up a charge and laying on the floor, Naxi had only a few seconds to react. Almost instinctively, he managed to pull a backflip at the last second and smacked the pidgey in the face with his tail. The static field around him, left over from the four previous thundershocks, stunned the pidgey, leaving it wide open for tackle from a very annoyed Victoria.

"I'd say that went pretty well overall.", Naxi surveyed the scene, all over the attackers K.O.'d and fading out.

"Sorry I didn't get that pidgey the first time.", Victoria apologized, feeling alittle dubious.

"Don't worry about it…", Naxi put a gentile hand on her shoulder, "You did fine. And besides that, we were outnumbered anyway, things like that were bound to happen with that many things happening at once."

"_Naxi's right,"_ Victoria's mood lightened a little, _"It wasn't that bad, just a small mistake I can learn from. I just have to be more confident…"_, looking on as Naxi straightened himself up and looked down their next path, _"I just wish I knew how Naxi stays so confident all the time, he's so optimistic…" _

The duo continued down the path, only a little worse for wear after their encounter with the dungeon's gaurds.

"Hey, I think that's the stairs!", She bounded over to the hole in the floor, "Yep, it's the stairs."

"Good, then let's keep moving." Naxi moved around the hole to where the stairs connected with the ground; it's cold, stone surface seamlessly melding into the dirt floor of the forest, "One step closer to getting out of this place…"

Tiny woods B3F

"How far down do you think this thing goes?", Naxi seemed to be getting impatient.

"If I remember what I heard correctly…", she seemed to think for a moment, "New dungeons rarely have more than 3 floors, then the exit."

"So you think the next floor's the exit?", Naxi perked up a little.

"If we're lucky, it will be…", She hoped she was right.

As they were about to move on, there was a sudden, sharp snap, like a twig being stepped on.

In an instant Naxi spun around and had a charge ready, "Thundersh-"

"Naxi! Wait!", Victoria shouted, having seen the source of the sound.

A small caterpi was cowering against the wall, its green form shaking uncontrollably.

"Sorry about that…", Victoria tried to look reassuring, "Are you kidd?"

The caterpi stuttered because of how badly he was shaking, "M-My-m-m-mo-m-t-t-ol-d-m-me-n-no-t-to-t-t-t-t-al-k-t-t-o-st-ra-n-n-ng-g-er-r-rs."

"Your mom sent us to get you out of here," Naxi seemed a lot softer-toned than he had been, "She's worried sick."

"R-Re-al-al-ly?", Kidd's shaking seemed to calm down enough to let him speak, "Thank you so much!"

"Alright, stay close to us and we'll get you outta here.", Naxi moved over to the entrance to another hallway and they proceeded into the maze.

Later…

"Man, why can't we find the blasted stairs!" Naxi was beyond annoyed, his cheeks were violently sparking.

They'd been walking around the last floor of the dungeon, but even after checking several rooms and going down numerous paths, they still hadn't been able to locate the stairs.

"Come on, there's another room over here." She stood next to another opening, peering in as she waited for the other two.

The group squeezed through the narrow passage, reaching the room beyond.

"Finally!" Right in the middle of the room was the stairs, and Naxi was elated at the sight, "Let's go get out of this place!"

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Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think of the first dungeon sequence.

And if you can't really think of something to say, Encouragement is always welcome.


	4. The First Save

First off, I would like to profusely apologize for the massive delay between chapter's three and four, I ended up putting it on hold for school, and got a little buried. I've got my feet back under me with the story now, and I'll be trying to update more often. Secondly, I've attempted to improve on as many of the points in Scythe's review as possible, so I would appreciate feedback on weather it improved for the better, because I'm the worst judge of my own writing. So, with that out of the way here comes the (Severely delayed) chapter 4 and the end of the first dungeon sequence:

Chapter 4: The First Save

The staircase's end brought the group to a single chamber, an open space rimmed with warped, distorted trees, each of which bore deep gouges in its trunk and shredded leaves on its branches. Though each tree was separate, they were so densely packed together that they would be impassable to most pokemon, and the wicked, tortured look of the trees seemed to hold the very malice of the dungeon's intent to keep its captives. They stepped off the cold stone of the staircase, and on to the moist soil of the dungeon's floor, which stretched out ahead of them and melded into a green, glowing panel in the middle of the room.

Seeing this panel, Victoria cried out in joy as she realized what it was, "That's the exit!" sounding both relieved and excited at the same time.

"Alright!" Naxi cheered, thinking, _"Maybe I'll finally wake up after this…"_ and rushed forward.

Catching a glimpse of something hiding among the trees on the other side of the room, Victoria called out, "Naxi Watch out!" Her warning came too late however, as the unseen attacker launched a Poison Sting attack.

In his rush to the exit Naxi didn't see the attack coming and took it square in the chest, "Ugh!", the attack knocked him off his feet and smashed him, back first, to the ground. Winded from the blow, Naxi had no chance to defend himself from the rapid barrage of Pin Missiles that followed. Each spike brutally slashed at his flesh, shooting a burning pain through his entire body, Naxi cried out as the pain intensified, his mind racing in a hundred directions from this brutal wake-up call. _"Agh! This! This really hurts! This can't be a dream, I would've woken up by this point! I've been denying it up to this point, but this proves it! This pain is real! All of this is real and if I don't do something soon this attack is going to kill me! I could Die Here! I don't want to Die not knowing who I am!" _

A beedrill emerged from the trees, and continued the assault, its insectiod face seemed to be curled into a pleasured grimace, as if it enjoyed the pain it was inflicting upon it's victim. With even more spikes slamming into his body Naxi couldn't even protect himself with his arms, which were quickly covered in wounds as he tried.

"NAXI!" Victoria Shouted, having recovered from the shock of witnessing the brutal scene, _"I've got to help him!", _at the thought, water built up in her mouth, and she released a forceful Water Gun at the exposed Beedrill, knocking it away from Naxi. It's assault interrupted, the Beedrill turned to face the interloper, and saw both Victoria looking protective, and Kidd paralyzed in fear. The Beedrill's face once again contorted into that same grimace, as if it was imagining the pain it would inflict to them.

With his assailant distracted, Naxi managed to stagger to his feet, and seeing the way it was looking a Victoria, _"Oh No, It's going after V and Kidd! If that thing gets to Kidd it could kill him! I've got to stop it!"_ A massive jolt of pain shot through his body like a splash of acid when he tried to move, causing another pained gasp to escape him. _"Agh, I can't move right! But I have to do something!" _

Apparently deciding on how it would best impart pain to Victoria and Kidd, the beedrill dashed towards them with stingers raised. Victoria fired another blast of water, but the agile opponent effortlessly evaded it and continued straight at her. As it did so, She tensed, _"What am I going to DO!? That thing's way to fast for me to hit with any of my attacks! And I can't just get out of the way, Kidd would be left defenseless!" _, in her moment of indecision, the beedrill was already upon her and pulling back its stinger for a strike, and in that moment Victoria screamed as terror took hold.

A thunderclap sounded as an extremely bright flash of golden-yellow light illuminated the room, and suddenly the Beedrill was paralyzed as a massive lightning-bolt struck it from behind.

Panting heavily, Naxi huffed, "Got you." And limped towards the twitching beedrill.

However, the beedrill recovered quickly and, enraged by the cheap shot, whirled around and fired another poison sting at Naxi; who, only able to perform a clumsy dodge to the side in his injured state, stumbled to the ground as he failed to re-gain his balance from the less-than-graceful sidestep.

"_Not good!"_ He panicked while trying to get back on his feet again, _"Agh, nothing's working right! My whole body is going numb and I can't move!"_ The Beedrill took it's opportunity and dashed towards the vulnerable Naxi. Seeing this, _"It's coming back my way now! Ah! Wait! Maybe if I can just focus the Electricity into my hand…"_ , He clenched his right hand into a fist, and could numbly feel a tingling sensation moving from his entire body into his closed hand, _"Alright. I've only got one shot at this, I need to get the timing perfect or it's all over for me." _

The Beedrill plunged both stingers at Naxi's prone form, but instead of their target they pierced into the ground where Naxi's head had been only milliseconds before.

"Try this!", Forcing his damaged body to co-operate Naxi sprung up from the floor and uppercutted the beedrill square in the face, unleashing a massive amount of electricity through his fist and into the beedrill's body, sending it into a violent spasm as it landed sprawled out on the floor.

Dareing to crack open her clenched eyes, Victoria saw the downed, spasming, Beedrill and the heavily panting Naxi. "Is, Is it over?" she timidly asked, still severely shaken by her close call.

"It is if the thing stays down this time.", Naxi huffed, "I don't know how much more I can take." Naxi felt as if he was standing by force of will alone, and the pain was creeping back steadily as the adrenaline of the moment began to diminish. Feeling concerned, Victoria quickly moved to Naxi's side, but was struck speechless upon seeing the extent of his injuires.

Seeing Victoria staring at him with mouth agape, " Don't worry to much V, I'm gonna be O.K."

"But your bleeding all over!", she voiced, concern for the sheer amount of wounds across his body steadily building within her.

The two were interrupted by kidd's shout, "Guys look out! It got back up!". The beedrill had pulled itself from the floor, it's grimace changed from one of pleasure to one of disgusted rage as it glared at the two.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!", Naxi's frustrations vented, a surge of anger welled up inside him. Electricity Violently sparked from him as he returned the Beedrill's glare, "This time, Stay down." He grunted.

"Naxi," Victoria was startled by Naxi's sudden anger, but recovered as an idea came to her, "Let's both attack it at the same time and get it with a combination."

Getting the idea, the fuming Naxi growled a "Got it." And began to spark even more violently than before, "Let's end this."

Wincing slightly at his harsh voice, Victoria called on as much of her water reserves as she could, and prepared for her attack.

The enraged Beedrill dashed straight at the pair in a berserk rage, no real intent or plan in its motions.

"Now!" Victoria yelled as she fired off her Water gun at full force.

"AAAAHHH!!!!" Naxi let loose an animalistic scream as he let loose all the electricity in his body at the beedrill. The electricity streaked along the water, guided to it's target by this aquatic set of cross-hairs. The combined attack slammed into and overtook the beedrill, completely engulfing it in the electrified torrent. When the attack ceased, the solitary victim collapsed to the ground, twitching slightly as it began to fade out, albeit in a more energetic fashion than any of the previous pokemon the pair had defeated. Small, glowing spheres of energy floated away from the fading creature and into the exit panel, causing it's glow to become even more luminescent as a small circle of energy began to swirl above it.

"It worked! The Syncro-Attack worked!", Victoria cheered, overjoyed by their victory.

The rage subsiding from him as his rational thought returned, Naxi wondered, "Syncro-attack?"

In response to his question, Victoria quickly explained, "Yeah, what we just did by combining our powers, we created a completely different, and much more powerful, attack."  
"Huh, that's actually pretty cool." Naxi pondered, "That was like some kind of Shocking Torrent…"

"Shocking… Torrent?" Victoria turned the phrase over in her mind, soon realizing, "Hey that'd be a cool name for that attack! We should call it that!"

"Uh, Alright, if you insist.", Naxi was starting to feel a little tired and was finding it difficult to think straight.

Kidd scuttled up to the pair and nervously asked, "Can, Can we get out of here now?"

Remembering their circumstances, Victoria felt a tad sheepish, "Right, we should get out of here first."

The Trio entered the vortex of the exit portal, and emerged back at the top of the fissure.

"Mom!"

"Kidd!"

The butterfree and Caterpie reunited made for a touching scene.

"Thank you so much for rescuing my baby!" The butterfree praised.

"It good to see you two together and safe." Victoria assured.

"They we're amazing mom! There was this beedrill, and it was all scary and mean and was attacking and they kept fighting and finally they finished it off in this really cool blast of electrifyed and water and the whole thing was just really cool! I was scared silly, but they beat it and they saved me!" The torrent of childish adoration (Which made it really difficult for anyone to understand him) spewed forth from kidd, as he told his mom what had happened with a sparkle in his eyes.

Hearing himself praised by the young pokemon, Naxi couldn't help but think, _"For all the time I felt frustrated down there, I can't deny that this is a real world, these pokemon are real, and I just saved a real life. Maybe… Maybe that could be something for me to do while I'm here, while I try to figure out what happened to me."_ The thought arose to a higher image, _"I… I could be a hero to these pokemon, I could save those that get trapped in those places…"_ Suddenly feeling exhausted, _"Maybe I'll talk to V about it later, I need to get home and get some rest."_ A dull pain creeped back to him, _"Ah! Ow, I really got roughed up down there, oh… It's only gonna feel worse from this point…"_

"You two seem to have gone through a lot to Rescue him, you have my gratitude." The butterfree once again praised, "Oh! We haven't even been properly introduced, I'm Linda, may I know your names?"

"Oh, Of course!" Victoria handled introductions, "My name's Victoria," She indicated Naxi, "and this is my friend Naxi."

"Well, Victoria and Naxi, once again I thank you! And I would love to reward you for what you have done for me, but I don't have anything on hand right now, you wouldn't mind if I give you one later would you?" The butterfree hovered, looking slightly embarrassed for not having anything to thank them with.

"Not at all!" Victoria blushed, feeling a little embarrassed herself, "It's reward enough to just know we saved your child."

"You guys are sooooo Cool!!!!" Kidd piped up again, "Your like real heroes!"

Victoria blushed again, _"Me? A hero? Naxi did most of the fighting, I don't deserve even half the credit…"_, Noticing the sun's low position in the sky, "It's getting late, we should get going, you two take care!"

"Alright, You two take care of yourselves, goodbye.", Linda and Kidd went off down the path, heading home.

Turning to Naxi, "We should get home to."

"Right.", Naxi blankly answered, sounding tired.

"Are you sure your going to be O.K. ?" , She questioned, concern welling up again.

Stepping toward the path, Naxi began, "Don't worry I'm Fffff…", he trailed off before collapsing to the grass, _"Crap…" _was his last thought as darkness consumed his vision, Victoria's startled cry of "NAXI!" ringing in his ears.

* * *

Please let me know what you think and any improvements I could make would be really appreciated, Thanks guys! Hope to get chapter 5 out soon!


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